This stained glass window resides in the Gordon Chapel at Old South Church in Boston. The red shape behind Christ is called a mandorla. In Italian the word means almond. It is a womb symbol, a symbol of the creative and transformative aspects of the Feminine Divine. It is also a symbol of the universality of the Feminine Divine. In our patriarchal culture, we still think that the masculine is for everyone and the feminine for women. For example, books with main characters who are girls or women are marketed solely to girls and women, while books featuring main characters who are boys or men are marketed to everyone. The womb symbol reminds us that the Feminine Divine concerns all of creation. The shape is created by overlapping two circles - one male and one female, just as the male and female parts are brought together in a womb to create a new being. As our belly buttons attest, we all began our earthly lives in a womb.
This mandorla frames the resurrected Christ. Christ steps out of the tomb, which is itself a second womb in our Mother Earth. The symbol draws a line from the Cosmic Womb of the Feminine Divine through Mary’s womb within which Jesus was incarnated to Jesus’s tomb in our Mother Earth within which Jesus was transformed into his resurrected form.